Unfortunately this year the Microsoft Xbox team didn't do a year-in-review graphic for their plays 😢. It would have also been an opportunity to do a decade-in-review, but oh well.  Missed opportunity.  I guess they are working hard on the next Xbox, which is slated to be released December 2020.I connected my Microsoft account with True Achievements to get a sense of what was played last

I don't often write on this blog about educational services and edtech stuff, but since I've started the Adieu series here, I might as well post here.  Microsoft has offered free online training for educators. Of course, most of the training is on how you can use their products and services for teaching, so it's a bit infomercial-y at times, but it's good nevertheless.  The old site looked

Before I put away my xbox 360 (hermetically sealed to keep the dust out while it goes on cold storage), I had an opportunity to try Titanfall. This was back in September of 2018 (yeah, this review has been in my drafts for a while).Originally I was a bit reluctant to get this game because it can only be played online (so no single-player content) and at the time I didn't have xbox live.  Fast

It seems like the idea behind the folding screen device isn't dead yet. Last week microsoft announced a few new devices, including a folding android-based device (which they claim is not a phone, but it is most clearly a phone).  It reminds me a lot of the knowledge navigator concept that Apple put together all those years ago (you know, when Apple was sort of out there and tried new things). 

Another one of my quick-runs through xbox 360 games to get a sense of the story and the game.  This one is Capcom's Operation Racoon City, which is a game that falls into the Resident Evil franchise.I think this game did multiplayer co-op much better than Crackdown 2. I played the campaign part of this game back in January of this year. From what I can see you can only play this game online (maybe

Another really quick review of an xbox 360 game that isn't backwards compatible to the xbox one that I did a quick run through in December of 2018.  This time the game is the Legend of Korra on the xbox 360 (I am surprised that it's not backward compatible!)I know that this is based on a cartoon, which I haven't watched.  But it is a brawler so it looked like fun.  The game resorts

Back in December of 2018, another game that I tried to play through on my 360 before I packed it away was Crackdown 2 (funny thing is that after I completed it it became backward compatible...)  So here is a brief review of Crackdown 2 on the xbox 360:As you can see from my gamerscore, I didn't really go after all of the achievements. Part of the reason is that the achievements were (like in

Back in November of 2018 I tried out a game called "Dark" on my xbox 360. I had been going on a binge of games that are not backwards compatible to the xbox one, so I thought I'd give this a try.The reviews for this game were bad...quite bad! (Metacritic score of 38%).  But the price was right (next to free...) and the concept seemed like an interesting concept: The game follows the story

This is one of the games that I had gotten on a (summer?) sale a few years back on my xbox and had never gotten to it.  I was a fan of Mortal Kombat when it had come out in the arcades in the 90s but I hadn't really revisited the franchise since then. The sale seemed like a good opportunity to do so.I played this game on Story Mode and completed the main story, but as with any game of this type,

During this year's E3 conference Microsoft announced the next gaming console (Scarlet) which will debut next year (which means that I'll get in in four years from now...).  It will be backwards compatible with the original xbox, the 360, and the One.  In order to achieve that, the Backwards Compatibility team for the Xbox One is stopping their work on the current console in order to focus

Another E3 2018 announcement - Microsoft's Halo Infinite. I've liked all Halo games I've played up to now, even though I have not completed all of them, and I have yet to play Halo 5: Guardians, so I was pumped about Halo: Infinite.  I didn't know it was coming, I was surprised and elated at the existence of an announcement trailer...and then it tell flat.  The trailer tells me nothing of

I am not sure if I was revising something on Feedly that I had not read yet, or if this crossed one of my feeds last week, but the story was about Windows Mobile 10 being taken off life support (it wasn't this story, but it gives you an idea). I've come to the conclusion, over the past decade, that Microsoft (just like Sony) just isn't good at Mobile.  They've given it a valiant try with Windows

I came across this video on Reddit the other day. I thought it would actually be a much more in-depth analysis of the game series, but it just seems like a whole lot of kvetching about Halo 5.  Since I don't yet have an xbox one I can't really say much about Halo 5, but Halo 4 wasn't really all that bad - if I remember correctly.

It's been an interesting experiment using the Motorola Razr as my daily driver, however with the lack of being able to just search the internet the phone didn't really do it for me (despite the satisfying "clack" you hear when you flip it closed).  I was looking on the web and I decided to buy a refurbished Nokia N8 to keep me going a bit until I find an android phone which I like.The N8 was

I love being reminded of rumors from yesteryear :-)  Back in the early 2000s there was a site called SpyMac which, as the name suggest, was a website that posted rumors about upcoming Apple products. I think that it also encouraged people to submit spyshots of new products, and hence potentially break their NDA.  The site no longer exists, but we still have some interesting fakes around

Seems like some enterprising individuals has gotten Windows 95 to boot on a Nintendo 3DS.  Pretty cool! Not sure how useful it is, but cool nevertheless.

Well lookie here! Seems like Microsoft has also put out a "year in review" for people who play games on xbox (I wonder if it also counts xbox live on Windows).  Seems like I spent a lot of time playing games in 2015 (to balance out the hard work of studying for my doctorate no doubt).  It does seem like my friends (the 3 that I have on xbox live) don't play a ton of games.    Maybe

Sure, Windows 10 isn't "new" any more, and there are enough people out there that upgraded so that they could get that annoying popup to go away, but as an enterprise user I am happy to not have had to deal with that "do you want to upgrade now?" (they should have used Clippy to make those announcements) :-)With work done at my home, and my work computers resting for now, it seemed like a good time

When I was younger I used to inhale Apple Keynotes.  I think part of it was Steve Job's presentation style that really drew me in.  I was also a big Apple fan (well, I still am), so I really wanted to know what products came out and get all the related specs and dirt as soon as possible  Early on this meant buying MacAddict, and heading to the Boston Public library to read the most

I was listening to MacBreak Weekly today, when they were discussing this ad.Personally I am not interested in switching to the Lumia just yet (like the device, but Windows Phone isn't quite there yet for me), but I found this ad hilarious :-)

I was reading my email this morning and I got a note from Microsoft telling me that they are trashing Windows Messenger and keeping Skype in it's place.  The truth is that I haven't used messenger in quite some time, but with Windows 8 I was looking forward to having it run in the background so I could use it for messaging (sort of how I have iMessage logged into my Yahoo, MSN Live, and AIM accounts

It's been three weeks since I got the Enterprise edition from our friendly help desk (those guys rock!) and I installed it on my work computer, and aging Dell Optiplex GX620, which runs on a 3.4Ghz P4, 2GB of RAM built-in graphics and 500MB of hard drive space.Yes, I know, you must be wondering how I can get work done.  The truth is that this is my backup machine where I undertake specific tasks,

Fascinating news from Microsoft, finally pulling an Apple!I am looking forward to the Windows 8 Surface tablet from Microsoft. If it's $500-600 (and it doesn't suck) I am more than happy to spend my own cash for it ;-)

This past weekend I cracked open the case which contained Assassin's Creed Revelations and played it on my xbox- yay! Another Assassin's creed game! I was really interested to find out what happened after the events of Brotherhood!I clocked in a couple if hours finishing off a couple of sequences. My first impression is favorable - Constantinople seems pretty nice and there is actual Greek spoken (with

Microsoft may have killed its double screen tablet before it even got off the ground, but some enterprising folks have brought the concept to the iPad.  This is pretty interesting. It reminds me a lot of the concept of smart object/plug-in architecture that they were going to do in the original MacOS 8 (copland) but the project was eventually a failure.

Yesterday I decided to play a bit of Fable III so I can move the story along. I had gotten to the revolution part where I depose my evil older brother Logan...but I guess the joke was on me since Theresa (the spirit that came to my character and said I'd be a hero) had also advised him that the great darkness is coming to Albion. He could have been a benevolent rules but had a greater chance of being

Microsoft, steal this idea!I was listening to Windows Weekly the other day and Laporte and Thurott were discussing ARM based Windows 8 tablets, versus Intel desktops, and how Microsoft's strategy is windows everywhere (as opposed to some sort of fragmented windows like we have now, and which was much worse in the past).  What seems to be escaping people is the idea of the dock!You could have an

I came across this video on YouTube (by hearing about it on Windows Weekly) and  I have to say that it is a riot! The tablets are bulky, they still use the stylus as inefficiently as they did back in 2005 (when this video was made) and...well it's so corporate!  At least the Knowledge Navigator video by Apple was a little more "real life."This video reminded me of the awesome motorola handset

I've heard lots of grippes over the past week about Windows 8 but I have to say that I for one am quite interested in it, and I have been a Mac fanboi for most of computer using life and I have never particularly liked the Windows OS line. Windows Vista and 7 are OK. With Windows 8 things have an opportunity to change (no, I am not switching to Windows, but I could consider making them part of my

Just as we big farewell to Vox yesterday, it seems like Microsoft decided to pull the plug on Windows Live Spaces, their own version of a microblogging community that you could access with your windows live ID. If Windows Live users want to use a blogging service they will be redirected to WordPress since that's who Microsoft decided to forge a partnership with.Honestly I never really used the service,

well... I guess "long live Windows Phone 7" it is!It surprised me that Microsoft killed the KIN last week, not because it was an awesome product, but because they took such little time between launch and cancellation (and apparently they sunk a quarter million dollars in ads).  I guess we won't be finding out if what's-her-name has real friends on the road trip she is going on or if they are all

A while back I had starred this ad so that I could go back and see it.Well...I did, and boy is it stupid! The icons with legs - uber-creepy! Yeah, I know I can take microsoft word, excel and powerpoint documents with me, as well as have outlook and twitter on a windows mobile phone, but you couldn't come up with a better way of letting us know that? Apple's "there's an app for that" campaign is highly

You've probably already seen the video of the Zune HD interface.I think it doesn't look all that bad (on video anyway). What I am interested in seeing in the Zune development world is to see if there is going to be an AppStore and if there are going to be many applications like on Windows Mobile and the iPhone. I wonder how many WinMo developers make the jump...The Zune HD also begs the question, will

OK, the laptop hunters ads are stupid - not borderline stupid - they are deep into the stupid region.This ad however for Microsoft word (office 2010) is BRILLIANT!

Όπως είχα πει πριν κάτι δημοσιεύματα, έχω σταματήσει να χρησιμοποιώ Microsoft Office στο σπίτι εδώ από τότε που αγόρασα το Mac Mini. Η αλήθεια είναι πως δεν ήταν όλο μονοκοπανιά.Στην αρχή σταμάτησα να χρησιμοποιώ το Entourage, και άρχισα

Από τότε που αγόρασα τον νέο Mac Mini δεν έχω χρησιμοποιήσει Microsoft office στο σπίτι. Πρώτον επειδή το Office 2004 είναι παμπάλαιο και είναι για την έκδοση PowerPC, και δεύτερο επειδή δεν μπορώ να βρω μέσο δουλείας την έκδοση 2008.Για να καλύψουμε

Την περασμένη Τρίτη η Apple ανακοίνωσε μερικά νέα προϊόντα, όπως την νέα έκδοση του iWork (εργάζομαι;) μεταξύ άλλων. Η τιμή είναι $79 και περιέχει τα Pages, Keynote και Numbers! Αν το συγκρίνει κανείς με το MS Office Professional, που περιέχει προγράμματα

Τα πράγματα δεν πάνε καλά μου φαίνεται για τα «παλιά» Mac που είναι βασισμένα στην τεχνολογιά PowerPC. Η Microsoft ανακοίνωσε beta εκδοσείς για το Safari και το Firefox της νέας της τεχνολογίας εν ονόματι Silverlight. Το καλό είναι πως και πάλι τα

Χτές εγκατέστησα κάτι Windows Updates γιατί εδώ και καιρό τα windows με έχουν πρήξει πώς το σύστημα μου (αν και εικονικό) είναι σε κίνδυνο! καλά λέω, άντε, εγκατέστησε τις αναβαθμίσεις και τα πάτς σου, και σταμάτα να με πρήζεις! Έκανε

Αν και έχω εργασίες να κάνω... έχω βάλει τα podcast να παίζουν, το virtual PC κάνει την δουλειά του, και όσο περιμένω να κάνει κάτι το εξομοιώνω Windows, εγώ καθαρίζω το σπίτι. Θα αστράψει εδώ 'μέσα!

Αφού έχω αναρρωτική άδεια, έχω παραπάνω χρόνο να κάνω κάποια πράγματα που ήθελα να κάνω εδώ και καιρό. Ένα από αυτά τα πράγματα ήταν να αρχίσω ένα ελληνικό μπλόγκ περί της Apple, με νέα, ενδιαφέρον λογισμικό, γενικές πληροφορίες

Ξέρω πως τα νέα Windows τώρα πια έχουν την δυνατότητα να αλλάξουν την εικονιζόμενη γλώσσα χωρίς να χρειάζεσαι να επανεγκαταστήσεις το λειτουργικό. Με το MacOS μπορώ να πάω στα preferences και αλλάζω την γλώσσα - με τα Windows, αν και υπάρχει